I looooved this book as a kid and frankly I haven’t met anyone who didn’t. My kids read it for school and also loved it. Honestly I think I’m probably due for a reread.

“When suburban Claudia Kincaid decides to run away, she knows she doesn’t just want to run from somewhere, she wants to run to somewhere — to a place that is comfortable, beautiful, and, preferably, elegant. She chooses the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Knowing her younger brother Jamie has money and thus can help her with a serious cash-flow problem, she invites him along.

Once settled into the museum, Claudia and Jamie find themselves caught up in the mystery of an angel statue that the museum purchased at auction for a bargain price of $225. The statue is possibly an early work of the Renaissance master, Michelangelo, and therefore worth millions. Is it? Or isn’t it?

Claudia is determined to find out. Her quest leads her to Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, the remarkable old woman who sold the statue, and to some equally remarkable discoveries about herself.”

Thanks to the new movie, A Wrinkle in Time is gaining popularity again but the book is quite different from the movie and definitely worth a read if you haven’t gotten around to it.

“It was a dark and stormy night.

Out of this wild night, a strange visitor comes to the Murry house and beckons Meg, her brother Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin O’Keefe on a most dangerous and extraordinary adventure – one that will threaten their lives and our universe.”

You can’t mention amazing children’s books and not talk about Anne of Green Gables. It’s absolutely quintessential and worth all the hype. I didn’t read this one until I was an adult but my inner child loves it completely.

“As soon as Anne Shirley arrives at the snug white farmhouse called Green Gables, she is sure she wants to stay forever . . . but will the Cuthberts send her back to to the orphanage? Anne knows she’s not what they expected—a skinny girl with fiery red hair and a temper to match. If only she can convince them to let her stay, she’ll try very hard not to keep rushing headlong into scrapes and blurting out the first thing that comes to her mind. Anne is not like anyone else, the Cuthberts agree; she is special—a girl with an enormous imagination.”

I’m breaking the rules and mentioning two authors for the letter M because Childhood Jen probably read more of the Babysitter’s Club series than anything else in the entirety of my adolescence. I was 100% infatuated and tore my way through the 100+ book series at top speed. Despite my best efforts, I’ve only been able to hook my ten year old on the graphic novels which, to be fair, are pretty great.

Surprisingly I couldn’t come up with an author for the Letter N for this theme that I’ve read but I spotted Rascal by Sterling North and remembered that both my kids read and loved this one for school as well.

“Nothing’s surprising in the North household, not even Sterling’s new pet raccoon. Rascal is only a baby when Sterling brings him home, but soon the two are best friends, doing everything together–until the spring day when everything suddenly changes.”

Last but not least is Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell which I recall being infatuated with when I was my daughter’s age.

“In the Pacific there is an island that looks like a big fish sunning itself in the sea. Around it, blue dolphins swim, otters play, and sea elephants and sea birds abound. Once, Indians also lived on the island. And when they left and sailed to the east, one young girl was left behind. — This is the story of Karana, the Indian girl who lived alone for years on the Island of the Blue Dolphins. Year after year, she watched one season pass into another and waited for a ship to take her away. But while she waited, she kept herself alive by building shelter, making weapons, finding food, and fighting her enemies, the wild dogs.”